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Ischyja
manlia Cramer
Noctua
manlia Cramer, [1776] 1779, Uitlandsche Kapellen,
1: 144.
Noctua
squalida Fabricius, 1787, Mant. Ins.,
2: 136.
Ischyja
amboinensis Felder, 1861, Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 43(1):
42.
[Ischyja
manlia Cramer; Holloway, 1976: 34; see habitats note below].
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Ischyja
manlia  |
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Ischyja
manlia |
Diagnosis.
Males have the forewing shades of brown, without any significant purplish tint
except on the longitudinal streak immediately posterior to the stigmata. The
stigmata are paler than the ground, with dark edging, the ground being a medium
brown; the reniform is rather irregular in shape and contains darker blotches.
There is a dark brown longitudinal streak posterior to the purplish one, and
this indents and sharpens the otherwise rather diffuse oblique boundary to the
much paler brown marginal zone. The medial loop from the dorsum is darker brown
but is only edged paler antemedially within the dark brown streak, if at all. On
the underside there are blue postmedial fasciae, that on the forewing distinctly
broader over its posterior half, and that on the hindwing thin and crenulate.
Females are a similar colour but the forewing is more uniform basal to the
paler, marginal zone.
Taxonomic
note. The identity of this species is based on a male specimen from
Tamil Nadu in S. India (slide 19131) that best matches the original illustration
of manlia.
In the S. Moluccas ssp. amboinensis is
darker, more robust, with a much broader blue band on the hindwing.
Geographical
range. Indian Subregion, Burma, Thailand (VK), China, Okinawa, Sundaland,
Sulawesi; S. Moluccas (ssp. amboinensis). Nielsen et al. (1996)
recorded manlia
from
Australia, and Fukushima (1947) recorded it from Palau.
Habitat
preference. The species has not been taken in recent surveys but there are
specimens without precise data from Beaufort, G. Marapok and G. Kinabalu in
Sabah. The material attributed to manlia by
Holloway (1976) consists of six other species as noted elsewhere in this
section. Possible females have been taken singly in lowland forest at the Danum
Valley Field Centre in Sabah and from the summit of G. Mulu at 2360m. During the
Mulu survey field counts were made before the complexity of the situation and
diversity of the genus were appreciated.
Biology.
Various accounts of the biology of manlia cannot be attributed with certainty to
the species as recognised here and are therefore presented in the generic
account. However, Tominaga (2000c) illustrated a female from Okinawa that is
probably manlia that was reared from a larva where late and final
instars were also illustrated. The larva is dark rich brown, finely reticulated
with paler squiggles. The final instar has a band of paler rufous brown
encircling the area of A1, and the anal section is also more this colour. There
are small tubercles dorsally on A2 and A3. The host plant recorded was Schima
(Theaceae).
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